The sample desorption process where analytes are desorbed from sample tubes and moved into a measuring apparatus involves time consuming steps. The invention reduces the time and manipulative steps necessary for putting samples into measuring apparatus. In gathering samples such as for example environmental monitoring, it is not unusual to have several hundred sample tubes collected from one or more monitoring sites. The manipulation of these sample tubes typically involves removal from a sample tray, insertion into a measuring apparatus, measurement, removal and storage or disposal.
As can easily be seen these steps are time consuming particularly when the number of sample tubes is very large. Thus if two hundred tubes are to be measured, a time savings of only 1 minute per tube can result in time savings of 200 minutes or 31/3 hours. In a typical days work it would not be unusual to measure even more tubes than the aforementioned 200. The present invention fulfills the need for reducing the time need for sample measurement.